( 1 ) THESE six petitioners proceed on similar facts and raise similar questions of law; accordingly they are being decided by a single judgment.

( 2 ) IN all these petitions the petitioners challenge the legality of the acquisition by the State government of certain agricultural plots situate in the village Begambad in the Tahsil of ghaziabad in the district of Meerut, of which they are the tenure holders. By the notification dated January 27, 1961, issued under Sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act the State Government notified for general information that those plots were needed for a public purpose, that is to say the construction of an "employees State Insurance Corporation Hospital at modinagar. " The notification is coupled with an order under Sub-section (4) of Section 17 directing that the provisions of Section 5-A of the said act would not apply. This notification was followed by another notification of the State Government under Section 6 of the Act, dated february 1, 1962, notifying that the land mentioned in the notification under Section 4 was needed for the construction of a hospital at Modinagar by the Employees State Insurance corpora